Vladimir Putin and Russian General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov during the inspection of the new military vehicle

SOCHI, May 13. /TASS/. The door handle of a Russian-made UAZ-Patriot off-road vehicle ripped off during the vehicle’s demonstration to President Vladimir Putin on Thursday is back in its place. The incident should be treated with humor as a curious story, the Kremlin spokesman said on Friday.

"Let us not make a media hype out of it or, all the more so, expect any reprimands," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a journalists’ request to comment on the incident with the vehicle’s ripped-off door handle.

In the Kremlin spokesman’s opinion, "this story rather refers to curious incidents."

"Of course, this story has nothing to do with the quality of the vehicle and cannot serve as some ground for making a conclusion about the vehicle’s quality. So, let us treat such curious incidents with humor and good-naturedly," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Putin was inspecting military vehicles outside his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday, including UAZ-Patriot vehicles re-equipped for the Russian Armed Forces.

As the president tried to open the passenger door of an UAZ-Patriot vehicle, it got stuck and wouldn’t open.

Head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Main Automotive-Armored Tank Directorate Alexander Shevchenko tried to help Putin and grabbed the door handle. But his attempt failed, as he ripped the handle off the vehicle.

As the UAZ-Patriot developers said, the passenger door handle came off owing to the vehicle’s locked door as the vehicle’s engine was not running.